Updated

New Delhi, Jan 15 (PTI & Agencies): Former Team Anna member Kiran Bedi today joined BJP and will contest the February 7 Delhi Assembly polls, a move seen as the party's effort to contain Aam Aadmi Party in the national capital.

The 65-year old former IPS officer was inducted into the party fold in the presence of BJP President Amit Shah and Union Ministers Arun Jaitley and Harsh Vardhan, triggering speculation that she may be in the race for Chief Ministership if BJP wins the polls.

When asked whether she will be the party's Chief Ministerial candidate, Shah said party's Parliamentary Board will take a call on the issue after election results are out but added that her induction will "hugely strengthen" the Delhi unit.

He also announced that she will contest the polls but declined to answer whether she will be pitted against her former Team Anna colleague Arvind Kejriwal in the prestigious New Delhi constituency. "A decision about her constituency will be taken later."

"Bedi's constructive contribution will play an important role in ensuring that BJP lives up to the expectation of the people in the election and in any future government" Shah told a press conference at the party's headquarters.

Describing her as an able administrator who has been a crusader while in government and outside it, Jaitley said the party had been in touch with her for sometime and her joining it will make the party stronger.

"She has experience in governance and enjoys a credible image. She is associated with certain values. She has been a crusader in government as well as outside it for a long time," he said welcoming her to BJP.

Bedi, in her speech, pitched her leadership credentials and said she knows "how to work and how to make others work".
"I joined BJP due to the inspirational leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Delhi needs a strong, clear headed and stable government. We have to make it capital number one in the world," she said.

Actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada is also likely to join the BJP and may be fielded against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Kejriwal in the upcoming Delhi assembly election, reports said on Thursday.

The party is banking on the actor's glamour quotient to win the New Delhi seat won by Kejriwal in 2013 after defeating three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit, IANS reported citing unnamed BJP sources.

A former Samajwadi Party leader, Jaya Prada fought the 2014 Lok Sabha election as a Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate from Bijnor but lost.

Former AAP legislator Vinod Kumar Binny and former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi too are likely to join the saffron party.

Another former AAP leader Farhana said she will be joining the saffron party within the next three days.

"Now that the BJP is on the path of development, why should we not extend our help too? We will join the party in the next two to three days," Farhana told ANI.

The BJP is likely to release its first list of candidates for Delhi assembly polls on Thursday. The election committee of the BJP will meet in the capital to discuss strategies for its campaign.

Polling in Delhi will be held on February 7 and the counting of votes will take place on February 10.

In the last polls in Delhi in 2013, the BJP had bagged 31 seats in addition to one by its ally Shiromani Akali Dal, falling short of a simple majority in the 70-member assembly. The AAP had won in 28 seats and Congress got 8.

Earlier Report

Former cop Kiran Bedi, actress Jaya Prada likely to join BJP

New Delhi, Jan 15 (Agencies) : In what could heighten the political fever in Delhi, former IPS officer Kiran Bedi is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party.

As per reports on Thursday, Bedi as well as actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada are likely to contest polls in Delhi on BJP seat.

Earlier, reports had claimed that the BJP could field Bedi as Delhi CM candidate. Notably, finding the right candidate to take on Aam Aadmi Party's chief Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi Assembly polls, scheduled to take place on February 07, appears to be a headache for the BJP's state unit.

If reports are to be believed, Jaya Prada is likely to contest polls against Kejriwal in the New Delhi constituency. Jaya Prada had contested 2014 Lok Sabha elections on Rashtriya Lok Dal's ticket from Bijnor, but had lost. She has been a member of the Telugu Desam Party, the Samajwadi Party and later the RLD.

Some leaders of the BJP state unit are of the view that Bedi should contest against Kejriwal. And there are some who think that former AAP legislator Vinod Kumar Binny or former party leader Shazia Ilmi should contest against Kejriwal on the BJP ticket.

Bedi was once Kejriwal's ally in the anti-corruption campaign led by Gandhian Anna Hazare that captured the imagination of the country and led to the birth of the AAP.

Ilmi quit AAP in May 2014 citing "lack of inner party democracy".

The BJP emerged as the single largest party in the Delhi Assembly polls in 2013 by winning 31 seats but could not form the government as it failed to reach the halfway mark.

The New Delhi seat was a Congress bastion and former chief minister Sheila Dikshit had won it thrice-in-a-row till she was drubbed by Kejriwal by over 20,000 votes in the December 2013 Assembly Election.

Kejriwal went on to become the Delhi chief minister and, though he was in office for a mere 49 days, he consolidated his position in the constituency. He is again the AAP candidate from New Delhi for the upcoming elections.

Delhi has been under President's rule since February 2014 after the Kejriwal-led AAP government quit, citing lack of support for an anti-graft bill, among others.